Woke up after the best nights sleep I've had since being in Thailand! Went down to have breakfast - eggs on toast with orange juice. Got picked up by the bus from the hotel very promptly and got driven to the port. The boat to Phi Phi wasn't bad at all - just sat in the shade and read. There was a girl throwing up which was pretty gross! The journey was so beautiful! Random islands in the middle of the turquoise water all over. So different to anything I'd seen. Got there after about 2 hours, and had to walk to our hostel. The man we spoke to said it was about a 20 minute walk which was fine, however he failed to mention it was up a VERTICAL slope virtually the entire way! Walking in the baking heat with our backpacks was pretty difficult I won't lie! The hostel we are staying in, is called Golden Hill Bungalows. It's right at the top of the island - up lots and lots and lots of stairs. I quite liked it actually. Rather than one big hostel, its lots of little shacks with private rooms in them. Suzy and I shared a shack which was right next to the reception - so glad not to have to walk more! After, checking in we went up and dumped our bags in the room. Its really quite sweet. Very clean and quaint. No aircon - but a rotating fan that will do the trick. Walked all the way back down to the beach to meet the girls. I was nervous about the girls and Suzy not getting on - but they hit it off straight away which was a relief! Suzy and I share d a pizza from one of the beach bars which was actually delicious! Met a group of boys which we got talking to. Turns out one of them is from St. Albans - VERY STRANGE! You can literally come to the otherside of the world and meet someone from your teenytiny hometown! He was called Rob - I already had him as a friend on Facebook, so our paths must have crossed before! Then there was Will, who was very good looking, but slightly arrogant. Then the last two were aussies called Jon and Phil who are hilarious and cute - if not a bit odd. We chilled with them for a bit and then went back to the room to get ready for the night ahead!
When we were looking gorgeous again - we went for dinner at The Pirate House - which was DELICIOUS! I had a carbonara so continuing my curiosity of the Thai cuisine! Floss really isn't well at all - she had a mouthfull and had to leave to be sick! After dinner, we went to the beach bars, but becuase it was so early, there wasn't really anyone out! The bar we started at was lovely, it was called The Chillout Bar, and rightly so! Kirsty and Floss were both feeling pretty rough and tired, so went back to the room. Jodie, Suzy and I stayed out. Actually one of the funniest nights I've had! We started of in Slinkys, which was GREAT. The night is a bit of a blur... Highlights are: Suzy doing a shot and literally throwing it straight back up by the bar, Jodie meeting a VERY tall man with LOTS of facial hair, everyone dancing on the beach with an amazing fireshow, Suzy and Jodie smooching men and leaving me to get my entire body painted in UV. Got pretty lost on the way home - but managed in the end. Great start to Koh Phi Phi - have a feeling I'm going to like it here!
Day 15
Day 16
Day 17
Did pretty much nothing all day - was great! Woke up at around 12, so got up and walked down to the beach for lunch. I'm not hungover at all! Very unlike me?! Saw the same boys as yesterday so stayed and chatted with them for a bit and we organised to go out together tonight. After a long day of rellaxing, reading and drinking fresh fruit smoothies, we went back up to the hotel to chill out some more. On the way back, we stopped off at a travel agents to book some fun activites to do tomorrow. We're going to Maya Bay (Beach from the film The Beach), snorkelling and to Monkey island. We went for dinner a lot later this evening. We went to a restaurant (can't remember the name) where I had a southern fried chicken salad, which was actually not very nice at all. After dinner, went over to the boys hotel and played some drinking games etc. Went down to the town - but it turns out that today is the queen of Thailands birthday today, so not very many places are open. So the beach and bars are super quiet. We found one bar that was open, but it was pretty awful, so ended up just sitting down, drinking some more and talking some more. Rob and Will ditched us for some hunnys they met. It was a very average night - and definitely not worth the hangover I'm probably going to have tomorrow on our adventure day!
Soooo hungover this morning! Got up at about 1 for our adventure day - so you would think that I had enough sleep to get rid of any chance of a hangover, but nope, I'm dying. We made our way to the travel agents, where we'd booked the trip. When we were waiting there, I saw these three boys come in and I thought I recognised one of them. Then after speaking to them, it hit me that the grossest one, used to message me ALL THE TIME on facebook, asking me to go out with him! I don't think he recognised me, or that could have been very awkward!
We walked back down to the port and got on an old wooden boat to Maya Bay, with a quick stop from snorkelling. I absolutely hate the sea by the way - probably should have mentioned that. I hate swimming with fish and not knowing whats beneath me. It's not just sharks that I'm scared of, its EVERYTHING. Regardless of this fear I've had since I was little, I pulled myself together and went in! It was amazing! I saw thousands of the prettiest little fish. There were lots of angel fish which are so colourful and beautiful. I have to say, I absolutely loved it! After, we got back on the boat and made our way round to the entrance of Maya Bay - WHAT THE HECK?! Back in Pai, Julie had warned us about this, but I had no idea it would be this bad/dangerous! The boats drop you off about 80 meters away and you have to swim to the oldest, most unstable, dodgey, rickety, hand made 'staircase' I've ever seen! You had to swim through very strong currents and crashing waves, over ridiculously sharp rocks to then reach the rope stairs that look as though they can support only one very light person, let alone 50! So dangerous! However, we made it alive and it was definitely, definitely worth it! Maya Bay is the most beautiful place I've ever been to. Not just the beach, but the whole island. No words will justify its beauty! We spent an hour on the whitest sand and clearest, most beautiful water, taking photos and swimming, and then it was time to go back down the ladder or death. After about thirty minutes on the boat - we stopped off at Monkey Beach. We only saw one monkey, high up in the tree, but I was still happy that I saw one. By this point, all of us were shattered, starving and filthy!
We arrived at Phi Phi again and went to a restaurant right on the beach where I had spaghetti bolognese which was really quite gross. Feeling very poorly, so Suzy let the girls at the restaurant and walked back up to the hotel. On the way back we booked our travel to Koh Tao for the morning. Had a really productive evening, judging on how tired and ill I was feeling. Got in the shower and scrubbed myself clean, repacked all my things, wrote all my postcards, caught up with my diary, charged everything, read my book and skyped dad and Charlie. Fell asleep so so so quickly - amazing!
Day 17
Woke up today at nine feeling refreshed and rejuvinated! A man came with a trolly to carry our bags to the peer - what a luxury. To get to Koh Tao, you have to go via Krabi, so we knew this was going to a long day of travelling. Got on the first boat, where Suzy and I went downstairs inside. It was so uncomfortably hot - should definitely have sat outside with the breeze! After arriving a Krabi, we almost immediately got on a bus, which was alright actually - very airconned and reclining seats. Bus took around three hours and took us to another port where we got on a LUSH boat to Koh Tao - which ended up being veryyyy long and didn't arrive till about 7. We walked to the hostel - which was quite gross to be honest, for £5 a night you can't expect much! We got ready and went into town for dinner in a lovely restaurant where - shock horror, I had carbonara. Made our way down to the beach and went to the first bar where we got a drink. After some cute games, we made our way to the main bar, where we had so much fun! Lots of dancing and mingling with the locals. The reason I have chosen not to cound Koh Tao as a stop on my Thailand trip, is because something happened there that I have chosen to forget about and chosen to not include it in my Thailand memories. However, I feel the point of this blog was to advise people on Thailand and to miss out such a big moment, would be lying.
We decided it was home time at about 2am, and began walking back to the hostel. We had to pass the bar we had previously been in to get home, and as we did, the men who worked there beckoned us over. Now I must be clear here - firstly, up to this point the local Thai people we had met had been nothing but lovely, welcoming and friendly to us so we had absolutely no reason to doubt them. Secondly, when we had been in the bar earlier, these men had been so lovely! We had been dancing with them and joking with them! This bar is called Can Cun Bar and it was the men who worked here who attacked us. To be completely honest, I was so tired by this point, I began to walk away and go home with Suzy. For some reason, still unknown, all six men were focused on Kirsty, they all lunged for her, pinning her to the ground. The man in the photo to the right, was sitting on Kirstys back, restraining her hands and pushing her face into the sand. They kept asking for money, but obviously after we'd been out buy drinks and food, we only had about £10 between us! The rest of us split up - Suzy took all our bags back to the hostel (I'm glad she did, as I had my camera and cards etc), Jodie ran to the nearest 7/11 to try and call the police, Flossy stayed on the beach with Kirsty and I ran to the nearest hotel trying to get help. No one would help - it was unbelievable. I went back to the beach and pleaded with the men to let Kirsty go, when I noticed they now had Flossy as well. They were holding her hands behind her back, pushing her head down, flat on the bar and banging a hammer centimeters away from her face. The men just kept asked me for all my money and passports. An Irish boy and his girlfriend heard the screams and came to help. The poor boy got beaten to a pulp - it was honestly the scariest moment of my life. Next thing I know, more Thai men turn up on motor bikes. I thought at first it might have been the police, until one of them grabbed me by my neck and pushed my to the floor. The men joined the others who were still beating the boy. When all of a sudden a group of American boys, strolled over, paid the men about 5,000 Baht and walked away. The Thai men burst out laughing, and all walked off into the distance. I have never been so happy to see Kirsty and Flossy. I saw the Irish boy with his girlfriend and he was walking, so I assumed he was okay. I was so shaken up and couldn't stop crying and couldnt wait to leave Koh Tao first thing in the morning.
